‘Runaways’ Season 2 Drops ‘Black Panther’ Reference

When ABC originally announced Agents of SHIELD years ago, the Marvel Cinematic Universe extended past just movies. Since SHIELD premiered, the MCU has expanded to multiple platforms, including streaming giants Netflix and Hulu.

While the properties, by and large, remain completely separated, every so often subtle mentions are dropped to make sure viewers know everything is still, in fact, connected. In the case of the latest season of Runaways, Wakanda — the fictional country shown in Black Panther — gets a namedrop.

WARNING: Minor spoilers for Runaways season two up ahead. If you have yet to watch the latest season of the Hulu hit, proceed with caution.

While the majority of the ensemble cast manage to ditch their burner phones so that they're unable to be tracked, one of the newest additions to the team forgets to pitch hers out. Having videos of a previous shooting and potential evidence of the actual murderer of her brother-in-law Darius, Livvie has a hard time summoning the courage to ditch her phone.

Livvie — played by newcomer Ajiona Alexus — has to receive reassurance from Alex Wilder (Rhenzy Feliz) that the data on her phone will be backed up. Alex even mentions that once the phone's data is saved, he'll be able to hack the phone and mess with its tracking system. Alex then mentions that he will be able to make it look as if the phone is located in "the mountains of Wakanda."

The Black Panther nod is just a small sample of the Easter eggs included in this season. Other MCU mentions include the return of WHIH Newsfront and an interesting connection between Nico Minoru (Lyrica Okano) and the Dark Dimension.

Runawayswas created for television by Stephanie Savage and Josh Schwartz, who currently serve as showrunners. The series stars Rhenzy Feliz, Lyrica Okano, Virginia Gardner, Ariela Barer, Gregg Sulkin, and Allegra Acosta as the Runaways. Kevin Weisman, Angel Parker, Ryan Sands, Annie Wersching, Kip Pardue, Ever Carradine, James Marsters, Brigid Brannagh, Brittany Ishibashi, and James Yaegashi star as their parents, members of The Pride.